Group alignment

An alignment brings together several groups from different classes that must share the same time slot, the same teacher and the same room.

The classic example: the latinists of 8A, 8B and 8C attend a single Latin lesson together. Instead of creating three parallel lessons (which would compete for the teacher and the room), you create a "Latinists" group in each of the three classes, then align them. The solver then places a single lesson, linked to the three groups simultaneously.

Typical cases:

• cross-class language groups (English groups gathered from several classes),
• cross-class electives (Latin, Greek, political science),
• specialization subjects in French high schools (since the reform),
• co-modules in higher education (the same core-curriculum course shared by several programs).

Power and restrictions

Alignment is extremely powerful — it avoids duplication, guarantees the consistency of changes (a moved lesson is moved everywhere), and simplifies consultation. But it is also very restrictive:

• Once aligned, a group can no longer have an independent lesson on that specific slot: if one of the three classes has an exception lesson, you must duplicate its group and unalign the clone.
• All aligned groups must have, in their respective classes, exactly the same hourly volume and the same configuration. An imbalance produces a consistency warning (see the Generation tab).
• Changes (adding a lesson, changing the room) must be made once, on the alignment — Omniscol propagates them. But editing the lesson through a single one of the classes can produce side effects.

Important differences

In calendar mode

In a timetable in calendar mode, the group of groups is preferred over the alignment: easier to edit, you can add or remove a group as you go without having to recreate the structure.